CBC News

The first Canadian man and woman to surge across the finish line of the Ottawa marathon this past weekend won’t be going to the Olympics in Beijing in August even though they both met international Olympic standards.

Gitah Macharia came 14th overall at the ING Ottawa marathon Sunday with a time of 2:16:55 and Tara Quinn-Smith came fourth in her category with a time of 2:33:58.

Quinn-Smith beat the women’s international A standard of 2:37:00 by more than three minutes and the B standard of 2:42 by more than eight during her first-ever marathon race.

However, she did not meet Athletics Canada’s tougher A and B women’s standards of 2:29:08 and 2:31:00 respectively.

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Victoria Times Colonist 10k

• Race winners and results - congratulations to Erik Kiauka (30:31) and Lisa Harvey (34:14) for their winning performances. Official race results are available in the PIH Searchable Database.

• Participant write-ups:
  • Sarah - ELM Women Rock the 10K! - Man oh Man…what a fantastic weekend in Victoria! I have a tonne to blog about but wanted to start with the highlight…
  • Marilyn Arsenault - Times Colonist 10k (35:50) - The weather was just about as perfect as it can get for race conditions today…cool, overcast with barely a breeze!
  • Ryan Day - Times Colonist 10k (30:41) - Another week, another 10k. Not gonna lie here, I am glad I am done racing till Ottawa, it has been fun and i’ve learned a fair bit, and more or less accomplished what I hoped I would….
  • Dirge Rhetoric - 3 Races, 3 weeks, 3 pb’s…well sorta - Three weeks ago we, (me and my sticks) ran The Sooke River 10k in 38:14., a new course personal best…
  • Daniel Wells - Times Colonist 10k - The weather co-operated (the rain held off until late morning) and it turned out to be a good day to race… overcast, 9 C and not a lot of wind…
  • A Runner’s Tale - Times Colonist 2008 10k - It wasn’t pleasant. Still, I ran better than I feared under near perfect conditions and for that I’m thankful. If nothing else I ran a PB as a father, which must count for something?
  • Crinson Chronicles - 39:12! - Well folks, the title says it all for today’s post … a new personal best at the 10K distance!!
  • Lawrence’s Blog - TC 10k Race Report - It was nearly ideal conditions for a race this morning. It was warm, overcast, the wind held off (for the most part), and the rain held off….

Suburban Rush Adventure Race - Port Moody

• For those not familiar, the Suburban Rush is a 30k off-road adventure race which involves mountain biking, trail running a mystery challenges.
• Results posted here.
• Participant write-ups:
  • Gary Robbins - Suburban Rush Sprint Adventure Race Report - The Suburban Rush Adventure Race, which Todd and I would be competing in as a team of two, was amazingly salvaged for us the night prior by a rather random act on my part…
  • Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island - Suburban Rush Race Report - It was so nice to race in the sun, as the clouds parted and the temperature rose to the mid-teens for this year’s version of the Suburban Rush….
  • Bryan Tasaka - Sucking Wind at the Suburban Rush - Today was the 4th annual Suburban Rush Adventure Race out in the Port Moody area….
  • Give Me a Good Reason - Suburban Rush - the suburban rush, my first adventure race and our first as a team to avoid any potentially damaging conflicts, we agreed on the following guidelines…

Summit2Shore Adventure Race - North Vancouver

• Results now posted on the Race Headquarters site
• For those not familiar, the Summit2Shore is also a short-course adventure race that is made up of snowshoeing, mountain biking, trail running and kayaking.
• Participant write-ups:
  • Team Average Jo - Summit 2 Shore - Most participants today were new to adventure racing thus completing the event through a team relay of 4 members each doing a different discipline….

Results for Sunday’s first Gutbuster of the season at Victoria’s Royal Roads University are now posted:

• 6km results
• 11km results
• Photos by Tony Austin

Finally, a recap has been written by the Frontrunner’s crew:

GutBuster 001: Royal Roads Recap

The trail running season got underway this past sunday with the first of five races in the 8th Frontrunners GutBuster Trail Running Series presented by The North Face. GutBuster 001 held at Royal Roads University is a deceivingly difficult course with many short steep hills and lots of roots and fallen trees which keep the runners focused. 238 runners took to the trails and challenged themselves to either the 6km short course event or 11km long course event. The weather behaved itself and everyone was treated to a fairly dry course….lets hope for more mud next year!

GutBuster Trail Running Series Race #1 (April 6th, 2008)

Kelly Guest of Victoria was first across the line in the long course event in a time of 49:27 having opened up a comfortable gap on second place finisher and co race-director, Nick Walker, who finished at 50:42. Last years overall series champion, Shane Ruljancich, ran a strong race to finish in 51:11. On the womens side, Meghan Day, returned to racing and finished almost 6 minutes up on last years GutBuster series champion, Cara Obee (1:01:18). Meghan finished 12th overall in a time of 55:37. Masters Runner, Jo Rosen, finished 3rd overall in a time of 1:01:34. Jo is an exceptional trail runner and should be in contention for the overall series championship.

Thank you to the Royal Roads Running Club for designing the course and providing all the great volunteers along the route. Royal Bay Bakery for providing the delicious cinnamon buns, cookies and coffee at the awards and Cook St Village Health Center for providing complimentary massage and therapy after the event.

Long Course Results

Short Course Results

Photos by Tony Austin

Two BC athletes, Matt Young and Curtis Christopherson together with a small group of other Canadians, recently competed in the 10th anniversary edition of the Oakley 100k Del Sahara, an ultra-trail run race across the deserts of Tunisia, Africa. Matt and Curtis are members of Team Average Jo, the brainchild of the mypypeline.com community.

They’ve put together a fantastic photo essay of their adventure - be sure to take a look.

Written by Christopher Kelsall and published Tuesday, March 11, 2008 on Flotrack.

Synergy Health Management, Bazan Bay 5k – Sidney, BC – Sunday March 9, 2008

Andrew Russell, from Revelstoke, BC who trains with the National Triathlon Centre (NTC) in Victoria and Marilyn Arsenault, Island Road Racers (IRR) also from Victoria, both won the Bazan Bay 5k road race. Russell led 634 participants over the flat 5k course, which winds it’s away along the waterfront in Sidney, BC. After a battle with two other NTC teammates, Steven Kilshaw and Jeffrey Phillips, Andrew broke the tape in 15:17.

Marilyn Arsenault who will be running for the University of Victoria Vikes in 2009, finished first in both the open and masters category with a near personal best of 17:21. Marilyn bested a field, which included Kyla Coates from NTC and Jen McLean who runs for the Prairie Inn Harriers.

Zach Whitmarsh, once Canada’s fastest 800m runner also took in the race and finished with a ‘sub 16’ as did the first 10 competitors, 25 others followed finishing under 17 minutes.

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Results are now posted for last Saturday’s Dirty Duo in North Vancouver (http://www.dirtyduo.com/raceday.asp?page=results) and Sunday’s Layritz Trail Pursuit in Saanich (http://raceweb.ca/results/config).

Written by Brian Drewry and published in the Times Colonist Monday, December 10, 2007

Some of Canada’s top triathletes showed why they’re just that at Saturday’s 4th Annual Stewart Mountain 10-Mile Cross-Country Challenge. Stefan Jakobsen of Nanaimo and Kirsten Sweetland of Victoria used their impressive running ability to win the men’s and women’s divisions of the 10-mile (16.1 kilometres) event.

Jakobsen, a former national triathlon team member, pulled away from Prairie Inn Harriers club member Shane Ruljancich during the second half of the race and won by under two minutes in one hour six minutes 11 seconds.

The women’s battle was between current national triathlon team members Sweetland, Melanie McQuaid and Carolyn Murray, with Sweetland, the national junior triathlon champion, winning with a time of 1:12:01. Sweetland’s time was also good for fifth overall. McQuaid came in with a time of 1:15:57, while Murray limped to the finish line with a pulled quadricep to finish in 1:20:32.

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